Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an energy harvester. Furthermore, the invention relates to an aircraft component comprising the energy harvester. The invention also relates to an aircraft comprising the energy harvester and/or the aircraft component as described before.
Background Information
Static electricity is a well-known effect of materials being in contact at first and then got released from each other. This effect can be enhanced by friction, called triboelectricity. A short description is given in Dominic Samson, Energy harvesting in aircraft with special focus on thermal electrics, Dissertation, TU Vienna, 2011: “If two bodies with different permittivities are put in contact, the one having the higher permittivity will be charged positively and the other will be charged negatively after they are separated. The corresponding current is called triboelectric current. If both materials are uncharged perfect conductors, the charge exchange during the contact is counterbalanced by an opposite charge exchange during separation. After the separation both materials are still neutral except if the separation process is very fast compared to the charged transfer. In the case of dielectric materials such as painted aircraft surfaces, the drift velocity of the charges is low in comparison to the separation speed and there is a residual charge.”
An aircraft typically collects charges during cruising by air friction; these charges (which can be harmful for electric devices or communication systems) are being released by so-called static dischargers.